Quinn? Krenzel? Help!

In the agonizing aftermath of Sunday's 19-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, rookie quarterback Craig Krenzel was asked where the 1-5 Bears go from here.

"Chicago," Krenzel said.

It might have been the only answer the Bears knew for sure as they left Raymond James Stadium.

Committing 10 penalties for 78 yards, including two costly 15-yarders at inopportune times, raised questions about the team's discipline.

By scoring only its second touchdown in three games since first-string quarterback Rex Grossman injured his knee, more doubt was created about an offense that gained a meager 167 yards.

Meanwhile, the defense kept looking for clues how to stop the run, and the quarterback situation remained unsettled, even after Krenzel replaced Jonathan Quinn in the second half and showed some charisma, if not consistency.

Krenzel completed 9 of 19 passes for 69 yards with a game-changing, fourth-quarter interception and a quarterback rating of 34.8.

"Craig brought a little juice to the huddle," tight end Desmond Clark said. "We wanted him to come in and play well because we're getting tired of the whole thing."

If Clark meant the uncertainty surrounding the position, it only figures to continue.

Tim Couch could be on his way to Chicago as early as Monday, and no consensus emerged in the locker room Sunday on whether Krenzel or Quinn deserved the job.

"Craig played well enough to get another shot to get back in there," wide receiver Bobby Wade said. "The only thing logical would be him starting at [San Francisco] next week, but we'll see."

Quinn, 5 of 9 for 47 yards, did not sound ready to go back to holding a clipboard, as he has for seven NFL seasons.

"I think I'm the starter," he said.

The only man whose vote counts, coach Lovie Smith, planned to wait until later this week to decide. He saw Quinn's demotion Sunday as nothing more than following the plan. Quinn even said he "knew it was coming" when the Bears went into the locker room down 10-0.

"You've got to admire a man being a man of his word," Quinn said of Smith's decision to pull him.

In what threatens to be the friendliest quarterback controversy ever, Quinn praised the play of Krenzel not long after Krenzel mentioned how much he appreciated Quinn giving him a pat on the back before his first snap.

"The plan in my head was to let Jonathan start the game and get his reps, and I really wanted to, unless things were really going well, see what Craig could do," Smith said. "At times [Krenzel] did some good things; at times he didn't. That's what you normally get when you play a guy for the first time."

Krenzel's worst mistake came with 10 minutes 36 seconds left, when he overthrew fullback Bryan Johnson on a short pass that Ronde Barber picked off at the Bears' 34 and returned to the 11. The Bucs scored the decisive touchdown three plays later on Michael Pittman's 3-yard run to make it 19-7.

"The turning point of the game," Krenzel said.

Smith agreed, but he also knew the Bears could not pin this loss on poor quarterback play, as had been the case against the Redskins and Eagles.

Instead, the red flags raised by the offense did not affect the game as dramatically as the yellow flags dropped on the field. Four penalties in particular affected the scoreboard.

The first came on the Bears' first offensive play, when wide receiver David Terrell was called for pass interference when he clocked linebacker Derrick Brooks downfield hard enough to knock Brooks off his feet. The block occurred when the ball was still in the air, and the penalty nullified a swing pass Thomas Jones turned into 77-yard touchdown. The Bears punted three plays later.

"We're not going to kick one guy out of the family for that," Smith said. "David needs to get better. We all need to get better."

Later in the first quarter, defensive tackle Tommie Harris committed the second major gaffe when he jumped offside on third-and-7 from the Tampa Bay 7 and then pushed down Brian Griese to draw an unnecessary-roughness penalty.

That kept alive a drive that ended with Martin Gramatica's 22-yard field goal to give the Bucs a 3-0 lead.

"I was always taught if the whistle didn't blow yet, stop the play so they can't get any yards off it," Harris said. "I apologized to the quarterback. I paid for it, but I didn't think it was necessary."

The third costly penalty came in the third quarter. The Bears trailed only 13-7 and had regained momentum when safety Mike Green recovered Mike Alstott's fumble caused by Hunter Hillenmeyer at the Tampa Bay 24.

Green celebrated by holding the ball up and was flagged for taunting, moving the ball back 15 yards and out of field-goal range. Three plays later, the Bears punted again.

"I looked up and said, 'I've got the ball,"' Green said. "I didn't know they called it on me. I was like, 'What did I do?"'

On the next defensive series early in the fourth quarter, cornerback R.W. McQuarters stepped in front of wide receiver Michael Clayton at the Tampa Bay 20 and intercepted a pass that would have given the Bears the ball in the red zone. But the officials said McQuarters interfered with Clayton when he chucked him, ending the Bears' most realistic hope for a comeback because of another yellow flag.

"Every penalty you can say there's some discipline involved," Smith said. "We are young, so I think it's a combination of that and other things hard play, too aggressive, a lot of reasons why."

Without pointing the finger anywhere specifically, Harris offered his own theory of why mental mistakes ruined the Bears' day in the Florida sunshine.

"Desperate measures call for desperate things," he said. "Frustration comes into play. A lot of guys are trying to make something happen. We don't need that. We need to learn how to play as a team.

"It's a young team. It's my first year here. We need to learn how to come together first in the locker room and then go out and handle our business on the field."